Forced Displacement, Exposure to Conflict and Long-run Education and Income Inequality : Evidence from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina
This paper investigates the long-term relationship between conflict-related migration and individual socioeconomic inequality. Looking at the post-conflict environments of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Croatia, the two former Yugoslav states mos...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2022
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099748104262212564/IDU0044f959d03d6f046b40b6970831a4f7cab42 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37397 |
| Summary: | This paper investigates the long-term
relationship between conflict-related migration and
individual socioeconomic inequality. Looking at the
post-conflict environments of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)
and Croatia, the two former Yugoslav states most heavily
impacted by the conflicts of the early 1990s, the paper
focuses on differences in educational performance and income
between four groups: migrants, internally displaced persons,
refugees, and those who did not move two decades after the
conflicts. For BiH, the analysis leverages a
municipality-representative survey (n = 6, 021) that
captured self-reported education and income outcomes as well
as migration histories. For Croatia, outcomes are measured
using an anonymized education registry that captured
outcomes for over half a million individuals over time. This
allows an assessment of convergence between different
categories of migrants. In both countries, individuals with
greater exposure to conflict had systematically worse
educational performance. External migrants now living in BiH
have better educational and economic outcomes than those who
did not migrate, but these advantages are smaller for
individuals who were forced to move. In Croatia, those who
moved during the conflict have worse educational outcomes,
but there is a steady convergence between refugees and
non-migrants. This research suggests that policies intended
to address migration-related discrepancies should be
targeted on the basis of individual and family experiences
caused by conflict. |
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